importance of individuals to
the system. Except in the case of very happy, and universal, and flowing
natures, or under the influence of accidental counteractions, a personal
risk, between extreme vagueness and extreme narrowness of character, is
incurred by the individual himself. In respect of employment, the
division of intellectual labour is so complete, that most persons in
such a situation are tempted to do their own piece of work, and no
more;--to rest satisfied with manufacturing the pin's head which happens
to have fallen to their share. Does a London life tend to quicken the
moral pulse and expand the heart? The forms of society are thrown into
too large a scale, and its pace is too rapid, to afford an opportunity
for the sort of intercourse by which alone a real acquaintance with,
understanding of, and affection for, each other can be obtained. No
means exist of getting there at any thing further than talents in men,
and beauty or accomplishments in women.

Qualities which can be exhibited as a show are discovered and
appreciated accordingly. But wisdom and virtue, which are to the mind
what breath is to the body, have no part assigned or assignable to them
on such a stage. A man may pass a life in London without an occasion
arising by which his neighbours can learn whether he is an honest fellow
or a rogue. The consequence is, that a good deal of such a man's moral
nature gets imperfectly developed, and dies away. The appropriate object
is not brought sufficiently close and home to him to stimulate and call
forth his latent powers. Charity is perhaps better off than most. By a
satisfactory compromise, it falls into the hands of a mendicity society.
But there are other virtues which do not admit of being compounded for,
and their burden transferred to a committee, for two guineas a-year. In
these cases the moral tax is too often evaded altogether. We are well
aware that men of pleasure are far from being the only persons who have
turned into a maxim of life the sentence which the Duke of Buckingham
passed upon the dog which barked after him,--"Would to God you were
married and settled in the country!" It is evident that the word
_provincial_ is often felt, by characters of a higher strain and object,
to imply an imputation or admission of mediocrity. Now, greatly as
nations differ, it is generally admitted that all capitals are pretty
much alike. It follows therefore, that the characteristic spirit and
princi